Paul Harvey, Good Day!

Rest in Slack, Mr. Harvey (9/4/1918-2/28/2009). Now you know the rest of the story.

Trends, but JSTW

Some years back, probably in the ‘90’s, I saw a cartoon that depicted a man sitting at a bar with various names and phrases from pop culture tattooed on his arms. All of them had been tattooed over with an ‘X’ except for those reflecting the most recent events or the most currently popular topics. A couple has just entered the bar and, observing the regular customers, surmise that, “This place may be just a little too trendy for us.”

Welcome to America where nostalgia now extends to first generation iPods -- not that there’s anything wrong with that.

If current trends continue, we will be out of current trends by the end of the week, and they are thinking of recycling mullets. Our trendy little black President is already nearing the down slope. He can probably expect to stay on top of the news cycle at least as long as the average Jennifer Lopez relationship.

The problem with new and improved is that new is not necessarily improved (Vista), and improvements are rarely new.

What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing new under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:9)

Yes, we can come up with new gadgets and new ways to kill one another, but the Preacher is not talking about accessorizing. The truth is that the nature of man has not changed and will not change as a whole. Only the individual can really evolve and be transformed. Civilizations, empires, and nations will rise through their cycles, reach their bright zenith, and descend into twilight and darkness. Such is the nature of what man builds and what man is apart from God …

… if current trends continue.



What does the worker gain from his struggles? I have seen the task that God has given people to keep them occupied. (Ecclesiastes 3:9-10)

What is the task God has set for me to keep me busy on this journey? It is to remember Him in and in spite of all the circumstances of life. It is to remember that there is an eternal reality to which I am certainly going, and, perhaps, from which I might have come.

He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has put eternity in their hearts, but man cannot discover the work God has done from beginning to end. I know there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and enjoy the good life. (Ecclesiastes 3:11-12)

This is not the “good life” in terms of high living, wealth, fame, power and ease as man usually thinks of it. Rather this is the good life God gives us in time, life in Him in this world. Give thanks to the Lord for He is good.

I know that all God does will last forever; there is no adding to it or taking from it. God works so that people will be in awe of Him. Whatever is, has already has been, and whatever will be, already is. God repeats what has passed. (Ecclesiastes 3:14-15)

There is a reason why they call this wisdom literature. In his God-given wisdom, the Preacher contrasts the empty, repetitive cycles of history with the unchanging nature of eternity. God’s work cannot change for it is perfected. Nothing that is perfect can have anything added or removed, else it will cease to be eternal and become subject to time. Yet in the flow of time, a work is done as well, but the work done in time has already been done in eternity. Those things to be created in the future already exist – perfect and changeless now.

That last phrase I quoted from Ecclesiastes 3:15 is, I think, a little ambiguous. The King James reads, “and God requireth that which is past”, with the marginal reading of “that which is driven away”. My New American Standard says, “for God seeks what has passed by”. The New International Version translates it as, “God will call the past into account”.

The things that are in the past do not pass away. They stand. Once God has established truth and righteousness, His designs are always in fashion. He stands in opposition to the modernist and the progressive. The eternal truths must be accounted for. We think that we have left them behind with our gimmickry and our trendy looks, our new moralities that are older than dirt. We have not. As we speed along, not realizing we travel in a great circle, they lie in wait for us around the bend. We will account for them, or we will be destroyed by them.

There is a reason the world is round.

Oh, I almost forgot: JSTW – Jesus, Still The Way.

Don't Fence Me In

I called to the LORD in distress; the LORD answered me with freedom. – Psalm 118:5

Depending on which translation you use, the verse may read differently. This is an alternate reading in my Bible. The more traditional and figurative version is something like “the Lord answered me and put me in a spacious place”. The Lord gave me room. The alternate is more literally the meaning and actually more poetic in English.

Distress means pressure. We feel things closing in on us. The hero has fallen into a trap. The trigger is tripped, and slowly, inexorably the walls of the room begin to press toward him. He is about to be crushed like a spider on a tile floor under a stiletto heel.

Though we often think of stress as a function of the modern, mechanized, high-tech world, stress is as old as mankind. The causes may have been different in 1009, B.C., but not the effects. A man with his back against the wall in ancient Israel felt about the same as the man today who cannot meet the demands placed on him by creditors, employers, friends, and family. It does not even matter that the cause is concrete -- a sword at one’s throat, for example – or more abstract like a loss of status or prestige, the same emotional reactions are generated.

When pressure comes it generates fear. Our body responds to all fears by dumping adrenaline into the system. It wants to fight the threat or flee from it. Often we are not able to deal with the causes of our stresses directly. Like the man trapped in the trick room, we see no avenue of escape, and the immediate threats to us are driven by some other, outside power to which we have no access. Our ancient somatic response not only does us no good, it makes the situation worse. We know by our physical reaction that we are afraid, and, consequently, we surmise that something truly disastrous or fatal is imminent. Forget payback, feedback can be a bitch.

The LORD is for me; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? (Psalm 118:6)

We can break out of this cycle of stress and fear. The way out of that crushing environment is up. The vertical is open to us, and the broad expanse of heaven offers us all the room we need. In Christ, we have a place on high. And, as the song says, the Rock is between the hard place and you.

We can rise as on wings of prayer, ascend from our dungeon by the ladder of faith. I do not have the power to free myself, but when I call on Him, the Lord will answer me with freedom.

Cagematch with the Mountain

The Spirit is the One who give life. The flesh doesn’t help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life – John 6:63

On that day many will say to Me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in Your name, drive out demons in Your name, and do many miracles in Your name?’ Then I will announce to them, ‘I never knew you! Depart from Me, you lawbreakers!’ -- Matthew 7:22-23

Whatever it born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit – John 3:6

The flesh can build buildings, but it can’t build the kingdom.

The flesh can raise money, but it cannot lay up treasure in heaven.

The flesh can increase membership and teach morals, ethics, and good behavior, but it cannot make new creations.

The flesh can preach inspirational and motivational messages, but it cannot change the heart of man.

The flesh can wield political power and get out the vote, but it is spiritually dead and powerless.

In fact, man in his fallen configuration can be a very powerful force for good in the sense of achieving material progress and offering help to his fellow man. Conversely, the human soul apart from the Spirit is capable of great evil, self-justification, self-righteousness, self-aggrandizement, and God-defying arrogance.

The more talented we are, the more intellectual capacity we have, the more we are likely to rely on our own strengths rather than upon the Spirit as He indwells us and empowers us. Those who are wise in this world are tempted to be less dependent upon God and His guidance. To walk in the Spirit, the wise do not need to become foolish. They need only to lay aside all they know and understand in themselves and seek the wisdom that is from above. “My ways are higher than your ways, and My thoughts are higher than your thoughts,” said the Lord to the prophet Isaiah.

I have no desire to criticize what others do, their motives, their intentions, or their accomplishments. For my part, I think I would rather do nothing than operate in the power of the first Adam. I may not be able to always adhere to that standard. My surrender may be lacking. I may take up the banner of self from time to time under duress and pressure, but it is not my intent to do so.

My prayer today is that I may accept all that comes as from the Lord, and that I may not lean on my own understanding but upon Him.

The Latent Power of the Soul - "Power for Service"

If one who is experienced in the Lord is present at a revival meeting, he can tell whether the speaker is using soulical or spiritual power. Once a friend of mine told me how powerful a certain preacher was. As I had never before met this preacher, I said I dare not judge. But I did write a few words on a notebook and gave it to my friend. I wrote: "Full of power but what power?" This friend was not as advanced in the Lord as was his wife. He did not understand what I had written. So he turned to ask his wife. After reading the note, she laughingly admitted, "This is indeed a real problem. What power is that preacher filled with?" Once a brother among us observed that whether someone had power or not could not be judged by how hard he was able to pound the pulpit. We need to discern in a meeting if a person's power is psychical or spiritual.

We may judge this power from two directions: from the preacher himself and from the audience. If a preacher relies on his past experience-wherein people repented through a message he gave-by deciding to deliver a message a second time with the expectation of getting the same result as at the first, he is undoubtedly working with his psychic power. Or if he tries to stir up people by relating many stories of repentance, he again will be using his psychic power.

On the other hand, if the attitude of a preacher is like that of Evan Roberts, God's vessel in the Welsh Revival of 1904-5, then his soul power will be denied. For that servant of the Lord asked God to bend him, to bind his soul power, to bridle his self, and to block all which came out of him. He who ministers ought to know the difference between these two forces. He should be able to discern what is done by his soul power and what is done by the power of God.

The work of the Holy Spirit is threefold: (1) to regenerate us, (2) to indwell us that we may produce the fruit of the Spirit, and (3) to come upon us that we may have the power to witness. Now whenever the Bible touches on the power of the Holy Spirit, it invariably points to work or witnessing. This refers to the Holy Spirit coming upon us, not to His working within us. It is clear that the power of the Holy Spirit is for work; the indwelling is for fruit. The power of the Holy Spirit is always spoken of in the original text of the Bible as descending or coming upon, while the fruit-bearing aspect of the Holy Spirit is spoken of as abiding in.

Why is the enabling power of the Holy Spirit spoken of as being upon? Because the enabling which the Holy Spirit gives you is outside of you. You cannot be sure of it. Therefore if in a meeting people ask you whether you are confident of today's meeting confident that people will be saved-you have to confess that you have no assurance whatsoever. For this power is exterior to you. The power of the Holy Spirit is beyond your control. But if this is soul force, you are assured of it. You know your message can cause people to weep and to make them repent. What is called dynamic power is merely the power of the soul.

Once I felt powerless. Although other people told me I was satisfactory, I felt rather feeble. So I went to see an elderly experienced sister, Margaret E. Barber. I said to her, "Your power is great, why do I not have power?" We knew each other well, and she frequently helped me in spiritual matters. She looked at me seriously and asked, "What power do you want what you may feel or what you cannot feel?" As soon as I heard, I understood. I therefore answered, "I want what I cannot feel." So she said, "You must remember that there is no need for people to feel the power which comes from the Holy Spirit. Man's duty is to obey God. For the power of the Holy Spirit is not given for man to feel." (Note that sensing in the spirit is another matter.) My duty is to ask God to bind my soul force, that is, my own power. I am to obey God absolutely, the rest I leave to Him to do.

If we work with soul force, we can feel it just as do the hypnotists, who know what results they will get by doing certain things. They know from the first step to the last step. The peril of the pulpit lies in the fact that many preachers do not know they are using their own psychic force. They think they have power; but they are only employing psychological power to win people.

Some have suggested that preachers have become experts on the use of psychology in manipulating people. But I strongly repudiate such manipulation; for even though we know how to attract people with psychic means, we should purposely avoid using any psychic force. Once I was working in Shantung. A professor there said to his colleague "that these preachers work with emotions." It so happened that when I preached to the believers that afternoon I told them how undependable and useless was emotion. The colleague professor who was told by the first professor that preachers use emotion was also present at the meeting. After he heard my word he said it was a pity that the professor who spoke to him was absent.

Let us remember that all works done through emotion are questionable and transient. In the work done through the power of the Holy Spirit man does not need to exert his own strength nor do anything by himself. If a work is done by soul strength one has to exert lots of energy and employ numerous methods such as weeping, shouting, jumping, incessant singing of choruses, or the telling of a number of moving stories (I do not say that hymns and stories should not be used, only everything must be done within appropriate bounds). For the employment of these methods serves no other purpose than that of trying to stir up the audience.

We all know that some individuals have a magnetic attraction about them. Though they may not be fairer or more eloquent than others, they nonetheless can draw people to themselves. Often have people told me, "You have great influence over So-and-so, why do you not pull him over?" To which I answer, "That is useless." For this will merely be natural; it is not spiritual at all. Many mistake Christianity to be a kind of psychic phenomenon as though it belongs to the domain of psychology. We really cannot blame them, because we believers make the mistake first. Unless the power of God draws your parents or your children, your natural attraction-however great it may be-is of no avail. Even if you could draw them with your dynamic force, what, if anything, is really gained?

(Watchman Nee from The Latent Power of the Soul, Chapter 2)

The Aroma of the Sanctuary

Tell the Israelites: This is My holy anointing oil … It is not to be used for [ordinary] anointing on a person’s body, and you must not make anything like it using its formula. It is holy, and it must be holy to you. --Exodus 30:31-32

As for the incense you are making, you must not make any for yourselves using its formula. It is to be regarded by you as sacred to the LORD. --Exodus 30:37

When they observed the boldness of Peter and John and realized they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed and knew that they had been with Jesus. --Acts 4:13

To be holy means to be set apart to and for the Lord. The term consecration is one side of the holiness equation. We give ourselves over to God that He might work in our lives according to His purpose. In the Old Testament spiritual economy of animal sacrifices when a man gave a lamb or a ram or a bull to be sacrificed, he had consecrated it. For his part, he had made it holy to the Lord. People could be holy as well, as one entire tribe was dedicated to serving God; this fell especially the sons of Aaron, who constituted the priesthood. They lived solely for that end, to stand in as mediators before God, offering sacrifices in obedience that God might look favorably upon His people. The priesthood foreshadows what is revealed and fulfilled in Christ, our great High Priest.

There is another side to holiness, and that is God’s work in making holy what is given to Him in consecration. It is referred to as sanctification.

According to Exodus, holiness has its own aroma. The Israelites were strictly forbidden to use any of the aromatic anointing oil or the incense burned on the altar in the Holy Place in their homes or on anyone who was not a priest. There was a dividing line between the holy and the profane. When a priest came into the courts of the Temple, he washed off the contamination of the common world. When he left after fulfilling his duties, he had to leave behind the priestly garments in which he had ministered. Still, I am sure a priest returning to his home retained some of the smell of the holy. If he had been anointed, the oil had penetrated his skin. If he had been in the Sanctuary, the smoke of the incense was upon him, on his skin and in his hair. The fragrance of holiness clung to him.

I would guess that many of us have met people who seemed to be perfumed with holiness. The cachet of God’s presence lingers upon them. They have been with Jesus. They have met the Lord in secret and the scent of His touch pervades even their material being. When Peter and John were brought before the Sanhedrin for preaching in the name of Jesus, they impressed the rulers with their boldness. The religious leaders took note of the fact that these simple fishermen had been changed by having been with Jesus. But another man was even more aware of this: the crippled man the Apostles had encountered at the Gate Beautiful. When Peter and John looked upon the lame man as he asked for alms, he caught the scent of holiness, of the Holy of Holies. He believed, and he was healed.

What we learn from Exodus is that holiness cannot be imparted indiscriminately. We are not to take what is holy and give it to the dogs anymore than we should throw pearls to hogs. We cannot drag people into the presence of God. What we can do is go into His presence ourselves and spend time there. We can place ourselves before God and allow the sanctifying atmosphere to permeate our being. Then, those with whom we come in contact will catch the scent of holiness and be drawn to Him.

Those who follow Christ are the salt of the earth, the light of the world. Jesus asks if salt loses its savor or saltiness, what good is it. Savor is a lot like aroma. If the Christian does not have the fragrance of heaven, if his presence has no bite or flavor, what good is he? The weakness and ineffectiveness of Christianity in the modern world must be laid at the feet of the individual believer -- at my feet. The Lord asks only that I give Him time -- that I have enough faith in Him to spend time in His presence. I don’t have to isolate myself physically. I can enter the Sanctuary on a plane, even in coach, in the mall, or at the office. Even briefly entering the presence of God allows that aroma of holiness to be renewed.

I can’t blame anyone else. Bringing that fragrance of life into the world is my job, and I have failed too often. What I can’t do much about are the plentiful and futile attempts to concoct a knock-off. Every time church doors open across America there are people who put forth their best effort to make others believe they are drenched in holy cologne. It is a waste of time. Only a true encounter with God in secret will sanctify us and impart the right scent. Accept no substitutes.

But thanks be to God, who always puts us on display in Christ, and spreads through us in every place the scent of knowing Him. For to God we are the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To some we are a scent of death leading to death, but to others, a scent of life leading to life. And who is competent for this? (2 Corinthians 2:14-16)

Feeling A Little Sheepish?

Who perceives his unintentional sins? Cleanse me from my hidden faults. … May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to You, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer – Psalm 19:12-14

The verse does not speak about secret sins, those things we know of and hide from others. It says that there are things below our level of awareness that are wrong. As Lynyrd Skynyrd said, “There are things goin’ on that you don’t know.” The Psalmist prays to be free even of those. If there are sins we know not of, could there be virtues of which we are unaware? I think so. In fact I think the true saint often does the good unconsciously. It could even be that what we do unaware reflects who we really are.

It is always a struggle for me to keep my motives pure. I can do the right thing all day long – provided I get full credit. Jesus taught us that when we give or do righteous acts we are not to let the left hand know what the right hand is doing. Keep it secret, even from ourselves. That seems a little bizarre, but it means we should not think of what we are doing as righteous. We should not think of it at all.

Luke 17:10 – In the same way, when you have done all that you were commanded, you should say, ‘We are good-for-nothing slaves; we’ve only done our duty.’

The old man is always hanging around to take credit for anything righteous. It’s like humility. An indication that I may have missed the point is having the thought flash through my head: “Damn! Ain’t I humble though!” So, too, if I find myself thinking that I must be an awfully good person to have done so much for others, I may be edging toward the ditch. Obviously I can only speculate on what is in the mind of a true saint, but I’m fairly certain they do not get caught up in thinking about their own good deeds. For one thing that draws us back into the past, while the saint is normally focused on right now.

I probably shouldn’t have gone down this road because I don’t really have any practical way to deal with what I see as my problem. I mean, if virtue is hidden from me, if I am not aware of it, how can I do anything about it one way or the other? The Psalmist prayed that God would cleanse him from hidden faults. Then he prayed that what he said and his thoughts would be pleasing to God. That might be something I could do. I could meditate on, as Paul said, those things that are true, honorable, just, pure, beautiful, and commendable. Proverbs does say that as a man thinks within himself, so he is. If I meditate on Jesus and all that He did, on how He lived as well as His death, burial and resurrection, if I keep Him before me then possibly I would be cultivating that hidden virtue. And when you think about it, that’s what it means to have Christ in my heart – not spatially but relationally.

One more passage that illustrates this concept that I’m trying to get hold of is in Matthew 25 where Jesus tells us about a coming judgment and a division of the nations as a shepherd would separate the sheep from the goats. This reference to dividing sheep and goats speaks of a difference in the very nature of the groups about to be judged. I suppose a goat might occasionally or at times act like a sheep, or the odd sheep might exhibit some goatish behavior now and then, but basically they are different creatures, with different attitudes and characteristics, different hearts, you might say. Jesus condemned the one group, the goats, for their neglecting and rejecting Him. He blesses and rewards the sheep for accepting and caring for Him. Strange as it may seem, both groups ask the same question. “When did we do that?” You see, the goats were simply being goats, and the sheep were acting like sheep. Neither one thought they had done anything special, good or bad. They were simply following their hearts.

And I will give them one heart and put a new spirit within them; I will remove their heart of stone from their bodies and give them a heart of flesh, so they may follow My statutes, keep My ordinances, and practice them. Then they will be My people, and I will be their God. -- Ezekiel 11:19,20